This vegan pad Thai is my absolute Favourite! Made with fresh simple ingredients you’ll love this healthy vegan dish that takes less than 30 minutes to make!
Is Pad Thai vegan?
This recipe for Pad Thai is a take of a traditional pad Thai recipe from Thailand.
Traditionally, pad Thai is not vegan since it’s made using fish sauce, eggs, and often times in Thailand even find dried shrimp.
Pad Thai is luckily very easy to make vegan.
The main replacement is to use soy sauce in place of fish sauce. All the other sauce ingredients stay the same and you will end up with an equally delicious Pad Thai!
What is Pad Thai?
Pad Thai is a traditional, stir-fried noodle dish served in Thailand. It’s commonly served as street-food or in restaurants all throughout Thailand. One of my favourite experiences was learning how to cook an authentic Pad Thai in Thailand.
The key to a great pad Thai recipe is to have the proper balance of sweet, salty, sour and spicy flavours. We achieve this balance through using soy sauce, coconut sugar and lime juice.
How to make vegan pad thai
Cook up the tofu in a pan with some oil. Once the tofu is cooked, it gets pushed off to the side (so it’s off the heat) and the noodles go in the pan.
After the noodles, seasoning and sauce go in, everything gets tossed up together and served with crushed peanuts and lime.
Pad Thai is BEST served immediately after cooking, so it’s not a dish you want to leave sitting around for 10-15 minutes on the stove. Eat it right away.
Tips for making this recipe perfectly
- Use extra-firm tofu and a non-stick pan to fry the tofu. This will make sure it gets nice and crispy and doesn’t stick to your pan.
- Don’t fully cook your rice noodles before adding them to the pan! They will continue to cook as your stir-fry, so you want them to be slightly firm with a little bite to them.
- Use a bit of water or vegetable stock to loosen up your Pad Thai if it the noodles start getting stuck together.
- Eat right away! Pad Thai is best enjoyed straight out of the pan, so don’t let it sit on the table for too long otherwise the noodles will start sticking together.
Some more Thai recipes to try
If you tried this vegan pad Thai or any other recipe on the blog let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more deliciousness!
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A simple Pad Thai recipe that is easy to make and takes less than 30 minutes!
Ingredients
- 1/2 pack rice noodles (approx 7 oz)
- 1/2 block of extra-firm tofu, cut into small cubes
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup-1/2 cup water
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 large handful garlic chives (can sub regular chives)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (gf if needed)
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar (can sub agave, maple syrup)
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1 green onion, chopped
- crushed peanuts, lime & cilantro for serving
Instructions
- Boil the rice noodles in a pot of water until tender, but not too soft (they should still be slightly undercooked. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick pan on medium high heat then add the tofu and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown.
- Push the tofu to the side of the pan, turn the heat to medium and add the garlic noodles, garlic chives, soy sauce, coconut sugar and lime juice to the pan.
- Slowly add some water to the pan, 1-2 tbsp at a time to prevent the noodles from sticking and allowing to cook fully through.
- Turn the heat to low and add the bean sprouts and green onion and mix together.
- Top with crushed peanuts, cilantro and a lime wedge to serve.
Notes
Use extra-firm tofu and a non-stick pan to fry the tofu to get nice crispy tofu that doesn’t stick to the pan.
Don’t fully cook the noodles before adding them to the pan! They will continue to cook as you stir-fry them so you want them to be slightly undercooked before adding them in.
If you’re noodles start to stick together, use some water or veggie stock to losen them up.
Pad Thai tastes best if you eat it immediately after cooking!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/3 recipe
- Calories: 265
- Sugar: 6g
- Sodium: 600mg
- Fat: 13g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 50g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 8g
Keywords: Vegan pad thai, tofu pad thai, Vegetarian pad Thai
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Excellent, tasty and easy to prepare. I just tried this recipe and it is definitely something I will try again!
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
Excellent my husband lick this plate
Thanks Brenda, glad you both enjoyed the recipe!
If a member in your family has issues with some of the veggies used in this recipe what other ones can you use. My dad can’t eat nuts the veggies that were used. So what cab I use to replace them?
Hi Nikita, you can use pretty much any veggies you love in a stir-fry. Broccoli, Chinese broccoli or bok choy would all work well!
I add baby Bok Choy and mushrooms every time – SO GOOD
★★★★★
So happy you loved this rachel!
Hi! Could you go without the tofu for this dish, or is it needed for the flavor?
Hi Tori, you can definitely leave it out it won’t alter the taste and is equally delicious without tofu!
For years I’ve been looking for a Pad Thai that tasted like restaurant pad Thai to me. This was delicious. My family wanted more sauce on the noodles, so I doubled the sauce ingredients the second time I made the recipe. I also added 1 T. Tamarind Concentrate to the original recipe. It gave just the last little sweetness and tang I was looking for. Tamarind concentrates seem to come in different strengths. The one I used was pretty mild. Use less if you use a more concentrated one.
★★★★★
Hi Roxanne, thank you for the review! I actually learned how to make Pad Thai in Thailand, so I wanted to share a recipe that tasted authentic to there! (But using vegan friendly ingredients.) That sounds delicious with the addition of Tamarind!
Hi, what type of tofu did you use?
Hi Gail, you can use any type of tofu i personally use firm!
I travelled to Thailand two times and this Pad Thai seriously reminds me of the ones I ate there! Really good!!
★★★★★
Thanks for the review Ben! That’s where I learned to make Pad Thai 😉
loved it! would not change a thing! thanks soo much!
★★★★★
Thank you so much! Glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Forgot to rate the recipe! 😀
★★★★★
Pad Thai is also my all-time favorite dish in the world, I love Pad Thai ?. I also saw the recipe the Life Changing Peanut Butter Noodles and these look so good too, can’t wait to make them. Looking forward to following along and trying all these yummy recipes! Eating pad thai at a local restaurant in Thailand sounds so yum, gosh ?.
Hi Ana, that’s awesome! Isn’t bad just the best? I love how fast it is to make. Hope you get to experience eating some in Thailand as well:)
So delicious Jess! Such a comforting spicing creation. Amazing that your travels influence your recipes, so creative of you! Thanks for sharing! Dee xx
★★★★★
Thanks Dee! One of my favorite parts about traveling is all the amazing inspiration you can draw on for new dishes:)
You are making me so hungry with this Pad Thai! Love your vegan version of this dish. I could eat rice noodles all day long 🙂 Oh, and that plate is so beautiful!
Thanks Nisha! and same here! I could eat this every day!
Pad Thai is such a comforting and spicy dish, which I ADORE! This recipe does look beautiful. I am so jealous you went to Thailand! But I am most certain you had the time of your life there!
Hi Cassie! Thank you so much! I totally agree comforting and spicy is the best! I hope you can make your way to Thailand one day:)